Just as Gene Siskel recently admitted that he walked out of BLACK
SHEEP, let me confess that I went to see THE POSTMAN (IL POSTINO) as
soon as it was released last year, but walked out bored stiff after
twenty minutes, and so I never wrote a review of it. Since it got
two major Oscar nominations, Best Picture and Best Actor (Massimo
Troisi), I decided to go back and see it all no matter how
unpromising it seemed in the beginning. In short, I am glad I did,
but I do not think the film is Oscar caliber. I found THE POSTMAN to
be an extremely slow, but heart warming little picture.
On a small and poor Italian island in 1953, a famous Chilean
poet, Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret), comes to live in exile. Since
he is an avowed Communist, he is shunned by his government, but
since he is known as "the Poet of Love", he is adored by all the
women of the world. That he is plain looking, in his 50s and balding
is of no concern to them; they are hot for him because of his
poetry.
Massimo Troisi plays a simpleton, a la Forest Gump, called Mario
Ruoppolo. Mario applies to be the postman to part of the island. It
turns out that in that area everyone is illiterate except for the
newly arrived poet and hence the poet is the only one that ever gets
mail. Being a mailman to a single person is more work that it might
seem since woman all over the planet write to the Poet of Love.
Pablo becomes a mentor to Mario who decides he wants to be a poet
too. Mario wants to know all of his secrets since he is in awe of
him. Pablo tries to convince Mario that poets are quite human and
tells him, "We poets are all fat." In a touching series of scenes,
Pablo attempts to teach metaphors to Mario, but Mario is sure that
the concept is too difficult. When he accidentally creates his first
metaphor, Mario claims it does not count since it was not
intentional.
Once reason Mario wants to be a poet is to attract women. Being
painfully shy, he needs all the help he can get. When he goes into a
bar, he sees a stunning beautiful woman, Beatrice Russo (Maria
Grazia Cucinotta), in a low cut dress playing a table game with
soccer players on sticks. He plays it with her without speaking, but
loses since he spends most of the time staring at her.
An old Dictaphone type of instrument plays a key part in the
show. Pablo warns Mario about it saying, "Even the most sublime
ideas sound ridiculous if heard too often."
With Pablo's help, soon Mario is spouting poetry left and right.
He woes Beatrice with lines including, "your laugh is a sudden
silvery spoon," and "your smile spreads like a butterfly." With his
new confidence, Mario becomes involved in the Communist party, but
he wonders what would happen if they ever actually won. "So what if
we break our chains? What do we do then?"
I did not buy the ending of the show. Although the conclusion did
not detract from the overall effect of the picture, I found it too
manipulative.
I have no idea why this film was nominated for best picture of
the year for 1995. There were so many that were better, PERSUASION
and TOY STORY just to name two much better ones. And as for Massimo
Troisi getting the best actor nomination, I am even more surprised.
His acting consisted of mumbling his lines while keeping the exact
same sick dog expression on his face throughout the entire film. An
effective, but monochromatic performance and certainly not worth
award consideration.
The sets by Lorenzo Baraldi and the cinematography by Franco
DiGiacomo create a wonderful atmosphere of a dirt poor but highly
picturesque out of the way island. The town is lush shades of rose
and salmon and most of the houses have highly texture stucco walls
with pealing paint. The simple costumes by Gianna Gissi add to the
feeling of prevailing but beautiful poverty. The natural grandeur of
the sheer rocky cliffs overlooking the blue ocean seem a natural
setting for poetry. Finally, my favorite part of the film is the
music by Luis Enriquez Bacalov. It is dreamy music full of overtones
of a simpler time and place.
THE POSTMAN runs a slow 1:56. The editor (Roberto
Perpignani) and
the director (Michael Radford) create a film with long scenes that
are only sparsely filled with dialog. I suggest bulking up on coffee
as I did, or the film's soporific pacing may put you to sleep. This
is a sweet little life affirming movie, but it moves at a glacial
speed. When there are words, they are in Italian subtitled in
English. The film is rated PG for no reason whatsoever. There is no
sex, nudity, violence, bad words, or anything to offend anyone of
any age. A two year old could see this film. I give the movie a
thumbs up and award it ** 1/2.
From
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